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reestablished their penal equivalent by a political measure in the decree of 8 March 1801 on the state prisons. This was one of the acts brought up against him by the senatus-consulte of 3 April 1814, which pronounced his fall "considering that he has violated the constitutional laws by the decrees
554:
demanded their suppression, and in March 1788 the
Parlement of Paris made some exceedingly energetic remonstrances, which are important for the light they throw upon old French public law. The crown, however, did not decide to lay aside this weapon, and in a declaration to the States-General in the
452:
In reality, the secretary of state had a delegation and could issue them at his own discretion, and in most cases the king was unaware of their issue. In the 18th century the letters were often issued blank, i.e. without containing the name of the person against whom they were directed; the
346:", or "The king is released from the laws." "The French legal scholars interpreted the imperial office of the Justinian code generically and arrived at the conclusion that every 'king is an emperor in his own kingdom,' that is, he possesses the prerogatives of legal
697:
Madame du Berry (Stunningly beautiful young
Mistress of King Louis XV - taken to prison when the King was on his deathbed. Marie Antoinette was overjoyed she would no longer be outshone by the beautiful young Countess whom she called "The Creature" behind du Berry's
192:
In the case of organized bodies, 'lettres de cachet’ were issued for the purpose of preventing assembly or accomplishing some other definite act. The provincial estates were convoked (called to assembly) in this manner, and it was by a
770:, accused to be the author of a satire against the Duke d'Aumont. His account of his short stay in the Bastille contains a description of the food he received, the room he was imprisoned with his servant, and the goodwill shown to him.
841:, features a "lettre de cachet" as a major plot point when the main villain, the guardian of a young lady who has run away, tries to use a "lettre de cachet" to obligate her to be returned to him so he can force her into marriage.
359:
This meant that when the king intervened directly, he could decide without heeding the laws, and even contrary to the laws. This was an early conception, and in early times the order in question was simply verbal; some
414:, on the contrary, were signed simply by a secretary of state for the king; they bore merely the imprint of the king's privy seal, from which circumstance they were often called, in the 14th and 15th centuries,
514:, a minister of the king's household, addressed a circular to the intendants and the lieutenant of police with a view to preventing the most serious abuses connected with the issue of
441:
They were also often used by heads of families as a means of correction, for example, for protecting the family honour from the disorderly or criminal conduct of sons. The case of the
438:
had many other uses. They were employed by the police in dealing with prostitutes, and on their authority lunatics were shut up in hospitals and sometimes in prisons.
449:
obtained by his wealthy and influential mother-in-law) is a prominent example. Wives, too, took advantage of them to curb the profligacy of husbands and vice versa.
434:
as a silent weapon against political adversaries or controversial writers and as a means of punishing culprits of high birth without the scandal of a lawsuit, the
716:(several times, on request of his father, as protection against creditors and once to prevent a death penalty for kidnapping and eloping with a married woman)
544:
Besides the
Bastille, there were thirty prisons in Paris by 1779 in which a person could be detained without trial. Convents were used for the same purpose.
247:
were mainly used against drunkards, troublemakers, prostitutes, squanderers of the family fortune, or insane persons. The wealthy sometimes petitioned such
743:
1077:
731:
503:
403:, which contained the expression of the legal and permanent will of the king, and had to be furnished with the seal of state affixed by the
313:
713:
495:, procured their momentary suppression in a kind of charter of liberties which they imposed upon the crown, but which was short-lived.
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to dispose of inconvenient individuals, especially to prevent unequal marriages (nobles with commoners), or to prevent a scandal (the
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710:(deprived of his academic chair in theology for awarding a PhD to a candidate without having read the (heretical) thesis.)
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was a royal privilege recognized by the French monarchic civil law that developed during the 13th century, as the
547:
They were reported to have been openly sold, in the reign of Louis XV, by the mistress of one of his ministers.
617:
243:, transportation to the colonies, or expulsion to another part of the realm, or from the realm altogether. The
48:
632:
283:
were not as arbitrary and unjust as they have been represented after the
Revolution, and he hence speaks of a
275:. In 1789 and 1790, all cases were reviewed by a commission which confirmed most of the sentences. Historian
59:
823:, one of the ablest and most eloquent of his works, which had an immense circulation and was translated into
185:. They contained orders directly from the king, often to enforce actions and judgments that could not be
927:
A black legend is set of historical exaggerations construed to darken the memory of a historical period.
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In the 14th century, the principle was introduced that the order should be written, and hence arose the
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obtained by his father). The treatise was published after his liberation in 1782 under the title
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to put Darnay himself into prison had the
Marquis not fallen out of favour with the royal court.
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779:
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84:
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that a reaction against the abuse became clearly perceptible. At the beginning of that reign
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8:
752:(rape and torture. The Lettre was petitioned by the marquis' wife, to avoid a court case)
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758:(domestic disputes and debt. His wife petitioned a Lettre, claiming her husband insane)
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347:
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764:(once for slander, a second time for violent menaces against the Prince de Rohan)
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and without an opportunity of defense (after inquiry and due diligence by the
1056:
1009:
Fred Morrow Fling (Oct 1897). "Mirabeau, a Victim of the
Lettres de Cachet".
908:
393:
555:
royal session of June 23, 1789 (art. 15) it did not renounce it absolutely.
284:
123:
838:
339:
228:
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404:
332:. The principle can be traced to a maxim which furnished a text of the
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182:
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could prevent court cases that might otherwise dishonour a family).
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848:
812:
507:
236:
227:, however, were penal, by which a subject was imprisoned without
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during his short ministry endeavoured to infuse some measure of
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488:
422:, and were entirely exempt from the control of the chancellor.
186:
476:
373:
782:(practiced black magic. A scandalous trial was avoided by a
457:, filled in the name in order to make the letter effective.
279:
has interpreted these confirmations as indicating that the
235:) in a state prison or an ordinary jail, confinement in a
869:
suspected that his uncle, a marquis, would have used a
730:
was used to avoid a scandal that might have affected
740:(twice, for eloping with two successive young women)
51:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
16:
Orders of the King of France, often arrest warrants
1008:
746:(misconduct: sent away to an abbey by his father)
744:Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière
1054:
1046:, Vol.III, London (1847) Charles Knight, p.1,002
704:(because a nobleman was interested in his wife)
578:
558:
262:were a prominent symbol of the abuses of the
181:by one of his ministers, and closed with the
1044:The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge
833:, one of the "Horrid Novels" mentioned in "
808:Des Lettres de Cachet et des prisons d'état
620:. Unsourced material may be challenged and
539:Les Lettres de cachet et des prisons d'etat
364:of Henry III of France in 1576 state that
158:
819:into which his father had thrown him by a
491:, the sovereign courts of Paris, by their
974:Les lettres de cachet – une légende noire
894:Fundamental laws of the Kingdom of France
732:Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan
714:Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
684:Learn how and when to remove this message
271:, and as such were suppressed during the
111:Learn how and when to remove this message
308:'s detention at the Bastille, signed by
296:
122:
1002:
541:and was widely read throughout Europe.
510:into the system, and in March 1784 the
1055:
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978:Letters of the Signet – A Black Legend
1078:Economic history of the Ancien Régime
152:
618:adding citations to reliable sources
585:
376:by verbal command" of the late king
49:adding citations to reliable sources
20:
996:The Civilization of the Middle Ages
815:, 1782), written in the dungeon at
529:while imprisoned in the dungeon of
368:was "prisoner in our castle of the
13:
971:
356:attributes to the Roman emperor."
14:
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570:by the Constituent Assembly, but
328:overcame its initial distrust of
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201:), or by showing in person in a
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525:wrote a scathing indictment of
213:to register a law despite that
36:needs additional citations for
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1011:The American Historical Review
984:
965:
930:
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498:It was not until the reign of
445:(imprisoned 1777–1790 under a
139:("In the name of the King...")
1:
958:
469:were made continually by the
173:) were letters signed by the
425:
168:"letters of the sign/signet"
7:
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559:Abolition and reinstatement
460:
342:: in their Latin version, "
10:
1099:
292:
207:, that the king ordered a
566:were abolished after the
391:belonged to the class of
344:Rex solutus est a legibus
314:minister Louis Phélypeaux
241:General Hospital of Paris
1083:Law of the Ancien Régime
914:
899:National Security Letter
845:Doctor Alexandre Manette
831:The Castle of Wolfenbach
792:(request of his father)
790:Jean-Baptiste Forqueray
768:Jean-François Marmontel
575:on the state prisons."
550:In Paris, in 1779, the
420:lettres de petit cachet
416:lettres de petit signet
366:François de Montmorency
306:Jean-François Marmontel
857:, was thrown into the
780:Marie-Anne de La Ville
487:. In 1648, during the
479:and by the provincial
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220:s refusal to pass it.
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889:Divine right of kings
861:prison by means of a
465:Protests against the
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258:In this respect, the
126:
854:A Tale of Two Cities
720:Marguerite Monvoisin
702:Charles Simon Favart
614:improve this section
353:Corpus Juris Civilis
233:lieutenant de police
154:[lɛtʁdəkaʃɛ]
45:improve this article
941:Chambre des comptes
633:"Lettres de cachet"
320:The power to issue
60:"Lettres de cachet"
980:] (in French).
483:, and also by the
430:While serving the
318:
199:lettre de jussipri
141:
131:of 1703 (reign of
1073:Letters (message)
992:Cantor, Norman F.
884:Bill of attainder
722:(complicity in a
708:Luke Joseph Hooke
694:
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686:
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581:lettres de cachet
568:French Revolution
564:Lettres de cachet
527:lettres de cachet
523:Comte de Mirabeau
516:lettres de cachet
512:baron de Breteuil
467:lettres de cachet
436:lettres de cachet
412:lettres de cachet
326:Capetian monarchy
322:lettres de cachet
273:French Revolution
260:lettres de cachet
225:lettres de cachet
197:(in this case, a
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871:lettre de cachet
863:lettre de cachet
835:Northanger Abbey
821:lettre de cachet
774:Giacomo Casanova
728:lettre de cachet
724:poisoning affair
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535:lettre de cachet
447:lettre de cachet
400:lettres patentes
397:, as opposed to
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385:lettre de cachet
302:Lettre de cachet
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1068:Legal documents
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865:. In addition,
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750:Marquis de Sade
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362:letters patent
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175:king of France
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635: –
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629:Find sources:
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599:This section
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62: –
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56:Find sources:
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40:
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34:This article
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1017:(1): 19–30.
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43:Please help
38:verification
35:
18:
839:Jane Austen
579:Victims of
504:Malesherbes
135:), opening
1057:Categories
959:References
674:April 2024
644:newspapers
481:parlements
432:government
405:chancellor
378:Charles IX
348:absolutism
183:royal seal
71:newspapers
937:Parlement
817:Vincennes
776:(dueling)
601:does not
531:Vincennes
500:Louis XVI
472:parlement
455:mandatary
426:As a tool
350:that the
340:Justinian
330:Roman law
304:ordering
215:parlement
210:parlement
133:Louis XIV
101:June 2010
994:(1993).
951:together
878:See also
859:Bastille
827:in 1788.
762:Voltaire
572:Napoleon
461:Protests
370:Bastille
335:Pandects
310:Louis XV
269:monarchy
187:appealed
1031:1832806
849:Dickens
825:English
813:Hamburg
658:scholar
622:removed
607:sources
508:justice
316:in 1759
293:History
281:lettres
249:lettres
245:lettres
239:or the
237:convent
162:
150:French:
85:scholar
1029:
904:Firman
784:lettre
698:back.)
660:
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631:
489:Fronde
387:. The
253:lettre
87:
80:
73:
66:
58:
1027:JSTOR
976:[
915:Notes
847:, in
837:" by
665:JSTOR
651:books
477:Paris
374:Paris
229:trial
218:'
92:JSTOR
78:books
726:. A
637:news
605:any
603:cite
533:(by
521:The
410:The
312:and
159:lit.
64:news
1019:doi
616:by
475:of
418:or
372:in
338:of
47:by
1059::
1025:.
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851:'
805:,
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177:,
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127:A
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1021::
1015:3
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681:(
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672:(
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99:(
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41:.
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